Changed the oil on mine this weekend... the original writeup made things easierm thanks (thumb) Have a couple notes, one important one:
- the engine cover is easy to take off, all you need is a 10mm socket and a small flat screwdriver for the plastic pin. The oil drain plug is 17mm, the drain for the filer is a metric allen wrench (not sure what size).
- I bought a Valvoline #1 oil filter removal cap-type wrench, which seems to be the right fit but it kept slipping on the filter. I solved that by wedging a thin rubber mat between the filter and the wrench. Might order the wrench from Mazda to see of theirs is a better fit.
- Oil I used was Mobil1 Extended Performance Synthetic 5W-30. Supposed to last 15k miles but I wouldn't leave it in there more than 10. That said, such long oil change intervals are common in Europe on many cars - today's modern synthetic oils just last longer.
- IMPORTANT: The manual states that when changing both oil and filter, the capacity is 6 U.S. quarts. This is exactly what I put in, then drove the car for a bit, let it settle and checked the oil level. It was too high, way past the MAX mark!! After several more measurements, I decided to drain about half a quart (I'm guesstimating here) and now the level is right at the MAX mark.
Moral of the story: Put in 5 - 5.5 quarts, check oil level and add as necessary. Filling it with 6 quarts may lead to overfilling, which could potentially damage the engine.
Oh, and after removing the oil pan drain plug, the oil shoots out way farther than I expected (pissed) Make sure to cover a large area of the floor under the car (newspaper works well).